Anyone who knows Eric knows that he writes about a little bit of everything, whether it's taking a trip down memory lane, or praising and/or criticizing something or someone.

Cliffs

About this blog

By Eric Bergeson

Since 1997, Eric has owned and operated Bergeson Nursery, rural Fertile, MN, a business his grandfather started in 1937. With the active participation of his parents, who owned the business for the previous twenty five years, and his younger brother
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Since 1997, Eric has owned and operated Bergeson Nursery, rural Fertile, MN, a business his grandfather started in 1937. With the active participation of his parents, who owned the business for the previous twenty five years, and his younger brother Joe, who is now president of the company, the business has nearly tripled in size during Ericís ownership tenure.
The holder of a Master of Arts in History from the University of North Dakota, Eric has taught courses in history and political science at the University of Minnesota, Crookston. He is also an adjunct lecturer in history for Hamline University, St. Paul, MN.
Ericís hobbies include Minnesota Twins baseball, Bach organ music, bookstores, hiking, photography, singing old country music with his brother Joe, and watching the wildlife on the swamp in front of his house eight miles outside of Fertile, Minn.

As I negotiate cliffs out here in Arizona, they're trying to avert the big cliff in Washington. What a bunch of utter silliness. Better to shut the country down than to compromise one inch, apparently.

The NRA head today decided we need guns in every school. Armed guards. But in no way is the proliferation of assault rifles any problem, no sir.

Our congressman Collin Peterson is in the pocket of the NRA. Last summer he voted to indict Attorney General Eric Holder on some trumped up charges that he was deliberately fomenting gun violence in order to slap gun control on the American people. Peterson was one of only seven Democrats who voted for the indictment on charges which are just plain nutty.

Why? Because the NRA said it was a test vote--if you didn't vote to indict Holder, apparently you were against gun rights and the NRA would oppose you in the upcoming election. Courageous Collin caved completely, of course.

Now that the NRA is acting completely nutty, I hope Peterson's blind support of their every whim comes back to haunt him.

I haven't been hiking any cliffs here in Arizona this week. The weather turned cool. It rained all last weekend, which was pleasant.

Then the steering went out on the Taurus. I couldn't crank the wheel for anything. I sat idle on Sunday, took the car in on Monday and found out that it was a faulty part from the repair done the week earlier on my front end suspension.

So, it was covered under warranty, which was good because it would likely have run over $2,000. Relieved of that expense, I put on new tires, which were needed after the two years of driving on gravel out to the nursery. So, my car should be good to go for a while.

The temperature sank and I immediately caught a cold. I am out here for a reason. I spend most of the winter season with some sort of sniffle or sore throat or tummy ache or swollen neck, but when I get into the heat, it all dissolves. So, when it got cold here, I immediately started to sniffle and sneeze and when it got wet, too, I ended up on the couch drinking Nyquil.

Oh, well. It doesn't interfere much with my concentration.

I am working on a writing project while I am out here. My goal has been to write 1,000 words per day. So far, so good. I am up to 27,000 words. Seventy-thousand words is a 325-page book. I spend most of the day thinking about how to use today's 1,000 words. When I actually sit down in the coffee shop to write, the words flow pretty easily. They will need editing, of course.

I have learned from writing books before what it feels like and what demons you have to battle to keep going. For one thing, once you start writing, you do not look back at your earlier work lest you turn to a pillar of salt. If you start editing your previous writing, you (or should I say "I") get all confused and lose my place. There is a time for editing, and it is not during the writing.

So far, I am having fun.

I am cutting down entirely on speaking in order to concentrate upon writing, and that feels right.

So, if I am a little sparse with posts here, it might be because I have spent my words for the day!